The Wall Street Journal announced on May 14,2012 that the
Looxcie Company now offers an opportunity for the people to become “citizen journalists,”
through the six-month program called “Looxcie Citizen Journalism Program.”
This was also in an effort to promote awareness of broader
range of news to viewers through systematic trainings and participations. The
applications are to be submitted until May 2012, and the candidate selection
process seems to be extremely competitive, as they are only selecting 10
people. These Looxcie journalists will be expected to deliver “unbiased, timely
reporting news” to the viewers with the help of their patron product, Looxcie
camera. That’s right: they will be each equipped with the Looxcie camera as a
part of the “Looxcie Citizen Press Corps.”
The Looxcie camera was selected as one of the top 50
inventions in 2010 in the Time Magazine. It was indeed a unique and innovative
product, since no video camera as tiny and as powerful has existed ever before.
It looks almost like a normal Bluetooth headset, but with a tiny camera to the
side, and it became the new affordable video camera for capturing all of your
exciting and mundane moments without having to worry about carrying it by the
hand.
But even without the convenient Looxcie camera,
everyone in this century with an internet connection is a potential journalist
and may express himself or herself however they’d like. This may all seem free
and wonderful, but this freedom opens up the issue of professionalism in
language and contents. An example of this kind was already covered in a past
blog entry about OhmyNews, the Korean model of citizen journalism. The editors
of OhmyNews regularly reject two-thirds of all the posts due to various
reasons, among the top reason being “selecting inappropriate topic.” To
properly redress these problems, Looxcie has come up with a plan. To train
these citizen journalists, the company expects 2-3 weekly video reports and “will
collaborate with the team of reporters on how to best leverage Looxcie cam to
capture both unexpected and planned news events for their audiences.” Through
these collaborative learning and training, Looxcie journalists will hone their
skills and learn through these interactions.
Looxcie Citizen Journalism Program would be great for
all aspiring journalists, but it would provide an amazing opportunity for
college students to experience the field before deciding to pursue further
schooling in journalism. The deadline for the applications is around the corner
so those who are interested in this opportunity should definitely look into it.
This seems like a great program. It will definitely spread awareness of citizen journalism even to those that aren't journalists, especially if the media filmed from the Looxcies are picked up by bigger news stories.
ReplyDeleteMy only concern from reading this article is pretty much privacy. Should the Looxcie take off and become a norm in everyday technology, people are pretty much recording everything at every time. It may be a far-fetched thought, but its simply my immediate concern, and used properly I think it would be a great tool for journalists.
This is an interesting case in which product design, citizen journalism, and a new news initiative combine. Interesting to see the bluetooth model adapted for the citizen journalist. I do agree with Carmichael that capturing data with a device that might look like it is only intended for private communication could raise privacy problems. Thanks for getting a lively discussion going!
ReplyDelete